Roots Fruits

[Rootsruler]

11/04/2023

Temp - 81.4*
Humidity - 62%
VPD - 1.39 kPa
DLI - 23

Plants are in their final home. Floraflex Matrix plates have been ordered. Once they show up I'll start setting up the auto irrigate. Looking to flip them in a couple weeks.

Florida Strawberry is the monocrop cultivar this round.​

 

[SoOrbudgal]

So what other type of lamps are you going to use? Is this a 5x5?

 

[Rootsruler]

I currently use 2 COB style lights that are 275w each. One is a newer white light LED and the other is an older style Blurple. The blurple is hung higher out of the picture but you can see the color of the light. So far they have served the purpose but I would like to move into bar style light as I like doing SCROG style grows and the bar lights will give me better coverage with a little less heat especially around the edges come flower time.

Yes. 5 x 5. 7 gal cloth bags. Roots Original soil amended with Mycorrhizae from Xtreme Gardening. Fed Voodoo Juice the first few weeks after rooting. Floranova G & B, Hormex, Armor Si, CALi MAGic.

I also have a couple of 2 x 2's I use for mothers, propagating and testing.

 

[Rootsruler]

11/11/2023

Temp - 80.7*
Humidity - 58%
VPD - 1.50 kPa
DLI - 38

I had to back off the lights a hair as the DLI was getting too high and the fan leaves at the top were just starting to taco. I'm going to FIM the girls and do some light cleanup underneath now that it's lights on so that when I get the screen in place I won't have so much cleanup to do on lollipop.

Waiting on a few parts to arrive in the mail tomorrow to finish off my auto irrigate. Once that is in place I'll net the plants and flip the light schedule. Plant branches are starting to wood up so I need to get these netted in the next couple days or I could LST them now, before I FIM, and get them ready for the net but I think I'll let them go as it's only a couple days more until I start bending so I don't think it'll be worth the work.

Couple things....I wanted to mention what great Customer Service I got from AC Infinity. My T3 humidifier's probe input got loose somehow and was wiggling around. I sent a message to Nick from ACI explaining what was happening and if there was some way for me to fix this. He replied by sending me an invoice for another T3 but with zero at the bottom of the invoice being shipped to me. He replaced the humidifier with zero hassle. I told him the other was working but just a little wonky. He said dispose of it as I saw fit. The new one arrived and is working beautifully.

I setup the FloraFlex Matrix plates waiting for the rest of the irrigation system to arrive so I decided to hand water with them. They worked great. Complete media saturation with whatever runoff I desired. Love it. Can't wait to get the system together and dialed in.​

 

[Rootsruler]

11/15/2023

Temp - 81.5*
Humidity - 58%
VPD - 1.59 kPa
DLI - 41
Leaf Temp - 80*

The plants were getting a little too tall for my liking and I can't wait for the last part to my DIY irrigation to arrive being another couple days so I went ahead and netted the girls as some of the branches were starting to wood up on me and that would be no bueno when it came time to bend them under the net. I'll flip sometime next week after I get my irrigation going and I get underneath and clean up under the canopy. I also want to wait until the leaves orient themselves so I know what needs to be removed and what can stay.

I tried to orient the branches to accommodate for stretch so that I fill the net and have a field of colas going vertical by end of stretch and beginning of flower set.

​

 

[Bluey]

You are really pushing those plants hard early on, but it seems to be working for you nicely.

 

[Rootsruler]

Leaving enough room for stretch. I figure in the next couple weeks I'll get around 18" of stretch. I left around 8" - 10" around the edges for the plants to stretch into along with space in the middle. Once they start to close up the canopy I'll let them go vertical and I should get a canopy full of 8" - 10" colas.

 

[Rootsruler]

11/17/2023

​Temp - 80.2°
Humidity - 59%
VPD - 1.49 kPa
DLI - 41
Leaf Temp - 79°

Looks like the leaves are starting to acclimate to getting smashed under the net and are finding their way to the light. Feeling a little under the weather so I'll get under the canopy and clean up when I'm feeling better. Looks like flip will be tomorrow to start the stretch phase of the grow.

On a side note, someone from another site offered me a brand new Phlizon PL-2000 he had won in a raffle for free so I took it. It should work well in extending the light coverage I want in the tent. I currently have two 275 watt COBs that'll cover maybe a 4 x 4 but if I want sufficient edge PPFD I need to move them closer to the backwall. This will leave room for me to mount the Phlizon light and should give me pretty much edge to edge coverage!!

I was going to use the VS1500 Pro as supplemental light but I won't need to now and can put it back into my 2 x 2. The Phlizon has 50 extra watts and is longer than the XS1500 Pro which works out nicely in the tent. Total wattage in the tent with the new light will bump it up to 750w. I have a few clones rooting so they should be rooted by next week and I will stick them in the 2 x 2 and veg for a couple weeks then into flower.

​

 

[Rootsruler]

11/18/2023

​Temp - 77.1°
Humidity - 65%
VPD - 1.11 kPa
DLI - 27
Leaf Temp - 75°

Dragged my sick ass out of bed and cleaned up some of the canopy and underside. Didn't get it to my satisfaction but I was feeling woozy half way through it. This flu is kicking my ass. Did a Covid test. Negative.

Reset the light timer to 12/12. Repositioned the oscillator fan. Raised the lights to lessen the DLI and give the plants a chance to get into flower. From there I'll slowly ramp up the DLI until week 7 then I'll slowly start dropping DLI until harvest.

Watered them by hand AGAIN, because my irrigation part is still in transit. They took 6 gallons and barely ran off. Once I setup the auto irrigate I'm going to set it to 20% runoff.

I still need to hang the tent heater. I need to stay on top of it these next couple weeks so that stretch doesn't get too crazy. Going to run the heater on lights off to try and raise lights off temps a little higher than lights on to try and decrease internodal lengths in stretch. It's an experiment. We'll see if it works or not.

​

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Every new winter it's getting harder for me to crawl around to reach into my 4x4 so i've just set up the 3x3x6 and just doing 2 or 3 photos at a time in winter. Sorry you got the flu it sure is unmotivating to do much work. Your tent looks great to me real nice training an you got your net up. I got a gallon long neck water can but get your waiting on slow ship eh? I don't like seeing that surge protector inside your tent but i figure you know what can happen.

 

[Rootsruler]

It's switched off and unplugged but thank you for the warning. Sometimes we forget about safety in our quest for perfection! It's temporary as I will be hanging it above the canopy so that no direct heat hits the plants. I would've hung it already but I almost passed out and fell into the plants when I was trimming the canopy!! LOL!!

 

[Bluey]

Oh dear. Be careful

 

[Rootsruler]

11/30/2023

Temp - 76°
Humidity - 64%
VPD - 1.10 kPa
DLI - 31
Leaf Temp - 75°​

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted and the girls have filled the net in stretch for the most part. I left just enough room for them to stretch which wasn't a lot as I've been running my little tent heater on lights off and raising the temp a couple of degrees higher than lights on temps. Looks like it worked because they didn't stretch as much as they did last time when I ran them together with the other cultivars. I'm guessing they have maybe a few more days to a week of stretch left but I'm also seeing pre pistil so flowers should be forthcoming in the next week or so.

I finally got the last piece to my irrigation system and put it all together and ran it. I was kind of disappointed in how much water the circulator, the little ring that goes around the main stem and distributes water around the plate, emitted. My little pump could water the entire media when I was using the DIY watering rings in around 5 minutes. Unfortunately it's not strong enough to put out a stream of water that fills the plate, maybe it's because I have 2 extra pots using water than I did last time so water pressure isn't as strong with more pots to water. I'm going to have to go from a 264gph to 800gph pump and see if that fixes the issue. On hand water the plates themselves work great. Just gotta get the water flow dialed in.

I also installed the two power heads in the reservoir to keep the nutrient suspended in the water so that it doesn't settle to the bottom.

After I had posted the last time I was pretty sick and decided to hang the oscillator on rope ratchets temporarily and when I got better I'd fab up a shelf but the ratchets are working pretty good so I just left them. I like that I can adjust the fan height with them so that when the colas start going vertical I can raise it a little more and get that nice gentle sway of colas going!!

I did a quick leaf cleanup as it was getting pretty thick in there but will be doing a more thorough job in the next few days then let them run to harvest.

I bought more EMT to make another set of horizontal tent poles. I'm going to use it to set up the other net as a trellis for the verticals.

The 3rd light that SSHZ from Bud Builders sent me is on its way and will occupy the space in front where the net isn't filled. By the time the flowers are button size that area should fill in somewhat but I'm pretty happy that the space I left for stretch filled pretty much to my expectation.

I'm going to stop using the heater in the next few days now that flower is starting to set in. Maybe the colder lights off temps will spur faster flower formation. Stay tuned!!!


​​

 

[Bluey]

I always thought they would stretch to make room for nice long big flowers.

 

[Rootsruler]

My goal was about keeping the internode short and stretch from going crazy. The warm nights seem to have done exactly that.

 

[Bluey]

Yes. That will work, also less red spectrum will reduce stretch

 

[Rootsruler]

12/01/2023

Temp - 81.4°
Humidity - 59%
VPD - 1.50 kPa
DLI - 31
Leaf Temp - 79°

A member from another site sent me a 200w light that he had won in a raffle but didn't need so he gave it to me. Light just arrived about an hour ago. Perfect timing as flower is just about to start and the added photons will be much appreciated!!!

I already hung it and I'm now testing to see how much extra heat I'm going to have to deal with. So far it seems to have sat on 82° but I need to let it settle as it's only been about a half hour that I turned the light on. I want to see what the average constant temperature is because it's dropping ever so slowly so we'll see where it lands.

I pushed the other two lights further back so that there's more light for the edges back there now that I have plenty for the front part of the tent with my new light!!!

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[Rootsruler]

12/06/2023

Temp - 77.4°
Humidity - 59%
VPD - 1.32 kPa
DLI - 36
Leaf Temp - 75°

I've been busy building a small lean to greenhouse in the backyard so I'm pretty tired at the end of the day. I've been doing some leaf cleanup but I need to get off my ass and do a serious defoliation. The girls are showing definite pre pistil so I expect small buttons to appear next week some time. I also need to get in there and do some tucking as the branches are arching up to the light. 12/08 will be the completion of week 3 of flip. I'm also starting to see stretch slow down so I figure a few more days and I should be out of stretch. After week 4 I'm going to let them go vertical. If I time it right I should yield a nice field of colas with some nice chunk running along the netline.​

 

[Bluey]

That's looking pretty good Roots.

Looks like the back left one is lagging a bit hey. Do you think the blurple may be less of a light than that on the right?

How high is your tent?

 

[Rootsruler]

Not sure I see what you are seeing but everything at the rear of the tent has filled out pretty much other than the center rear as I only have one plant in the middle while I have two plants on the sides. The middle rear is a bit sparse but closing up as is the front. Maybe you mean rear right. That area is difficult to get to so I may have been a bit overzealous with the defol. I don't expect much more net getting filled as the plants have pretty much done all the stretching they're going to be doing. I'm hoping by week 6 the canopy should be fairly full with 8" colas. I'll drop another level of netting to trellis the colas so they aren't flopping around if they get taller than 8".

I keep trying to get rid of the blurple but I have to admit. It does the job. It's actually quite powerful which is why I have it hung higher than the others. It's one of those that has grow and bloom buttons and lacks any green spectra but that can be good in late flowering. It has no dimmer so I have to regulate DLI by raising and lowering it. I haven't noticed a drop in yield or quality versus the other white light LED's so I keep using it.

I already know a bar light is what I should be hanging in the tent for the style I grow and I'm sure I'll eventually fork over the dough to get one but so far these COB's have been doing the job.